Page 322 of Bad for Me

DARK ORNAMENTS

S.J. RANSOM

PROLOGUE

Rosie

“Mom?”

I can hear Magnolia calling me, but the darkness is so peaceful. Just a few more moments of peace. Or at least that’s what I think it is.

“Mom, get up. We’re going to be late for school.”

School? Why would they need to go to school?

They should join me in the darkness. It’s nice here.

“What’s wrong, why won’t she wake up?” My son, Jacob, asks with worry in his tone.

Why is he worried?

It doesn’t matter if I don’t wake up. I’m right here. I scream, but there’s no sound.

“Leave your mother alone now.” Johanna, the housekeeper, ushers the children out of the room.

A haze takes me away, and I don’t wake up for hours. When I do, my head is splitting in two, and I can’t focus on anything except what’s right in front of me. Looking up makes me dizzy. Keeping my head down, Johanna comes rushing up to me.

“Oh, Mrs. Carlysle, I have the doctor on the way.” She helps me to the bathroom, and I look at her.

“For what, Johanna?” Why on earth would I need a doctor? Nothing makes sense right now.

“Mr. Carlysle…he…” Darryl comes into the bathroom and helps Johanna get me to where I need to be.

“Stop pussyfooting around, Mom. He drugged her. Raped her and left her for dead.”

Surely, they aren’t talking about me. My husband loves me.

“No, he doesn’t love you.”

Oh, I must have said that out loud. I think I’m embarrassed but everything just seems to be unattainable right now. The black void is calling me again.

Darryl’s voice cuts through the fog. “He used you, and now that you’ve given him an heir, and he’s almost old enough to go into the academy, he has no need for you,” Darryl says softly, and Johanna lowers my panties. There’s blood on them, and it’s not from my period.

“Oh, Mrs. Carlysle. You and the kids need to go. My Robert will help you. As well as Darryl. Won’t you, son?”

I look at Johanna and Darryl. This is what a real family is like. Something I know nothing about. My family turned their back on me years ago, and I haven’t talked to them since.

“I cannot leave. The children will not receive their trust funds if we leave.”

“Money is not something you should worry about,” Darryl cuts into my frantic words.

* * *

Five years later

The beepingof the IV machine wakes me. I’m glad for it and don’t wish to fall back asleep. Nightmares haunt me daily now. No matter what I do, I am abused by my husband. My children are safe, though. Magnolia and Jacob are now in college. Their trust funds are secured in their name now.

“Hello, Mrs. Carlysle.” Detective Adam Long looks at me, and I wonder if he’s under my husband’s thumb, too.

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